Canadian English is influenced by both American and British English, plus there are Canadianisms (sometimes with more influence from French Canadian).

I haven't finished (hardly started) the CoW questline on my mage so one thing I'm interested in is if theres a pattern to which people say it which way?
If all Nords say it one way and everyone else another or all humans one way and all elves another then I'd conclude its a deliberate attempt by Bethesda to reflect different dialects of Cyrodillac existing in Tamriel. If on the other hand its a matter of 1 Nord voice actor saying it 1 way and another the other way then I'd conclude Bethesda just didn't think about it.

In the college there are only two or three people that say "arkmage." Interestingly though, one of those people is a female high elf, but the other female high elf says "archmage," and I'm pretty sure they're the same voice actress. Disclaimer: might be misremembering, feel free to correct me.

Other than that, no apparent pattern. It seems like Bethesda didn't really think about it. Or, maybe, they thought about it and thought "huh, there's no way to check if we got this right, so we better do it both ways and play it safe." Who knows?

this is just bored people ranting

Not at all Tow, I've been playing and reading the forum every day since 11/11 - level 51 and really enjoying it. Still got tons to do and planning something every day while enjoying the forums as they settle down eventually. It's good to find threads in which people are just enjoying chewing the fat and exchanging war stories, getting ideas for gameplay and wotnot

Let's not forget that the "arch" in "archive" is not the same as the "arch" in "archbishop". The latter is a removable prefix, whereas "archaic" or "archive" are one word.

Now, whether this has any influence on the correct English pronunciation, I'm not sure, but it seems to me that the word "archmage" was intended to echo "archbishop" or other such titles, and so I personally see it as the word "mage" with the prefix "arch-" added to it, and pronounce it like "archbishop". But that's only until Bethesda officially decides how their word is to be pronounced

EDIT: sorry, I missed part of the discussion and evidently I hadn't thought of "archangel". Tough one, that

Hear hear. I eventually had to take a break from both the forums and skyrim because all the jackoffs complaining about every little detail soured the experience for me.

Ark-mage sounds stupid to me so I say it the other way.

Dictionary.com says its spelt archimage, and that spelling is pronounced with the ark.

Hello all,

First, I would like to commend Sheepdog for posting such an intriguing question and on keeping the overall tone of this thread civil.

I pronounce 'Arch mage' as 'Arch' + 'Mage'! I pronounce 'Arch mage' as such because the word seems to be made up of two words with the 'Arch' part (to me) being a prefixed designation or title that does not need a hyphen or with the hyphen dropped and the 'mage' part being an identifying description of the referred to person - maybe vocational. As a matter of fact my ‘MSWord’ spell checker (no pun intended) corrects ‘Archmage’ to ‘Arch mage’ two definite and separate words.

I have done a little 'poking around' on the internet today and found that the deeper you dig for an answer, the more interesting the question at hand becomes!

The word 'Arch'¹ on its own and in simple terms means [noun] 'a curved symmetrical structure spanning an opening and typically supporting the weight of a bridge, roof, or wall above it.' or [verb] 'have the curved shape of an arch' or 'form or cause to form the curved shape of an arch'. Used in this sense ‘Arch’ has the origin: Middle English: from Old French arche, based on Latin arcus 'bow'. Quick edit - forgot to mention; sometimes an arch can be seen as being protective and / or supportive af an individual! Just thought I would 'throw that one out there'.

In the usage of 'Arch' that is being discussed here though, 'Arch' is used as a prefix to another word and this is where the usage and subsequent pronunciation becomes ... interesting.

Looking at the word ‘Arch’ in the sense of a prefix, it can be seen as being negative or sinister such as in the hyphenated ‘Arch-enemy’² or ‘Arch-fiend’. Alternatively, ‘Arch’ can be meant as ‘chief’, ‘over’ or ‘higher’ or ‘of greater rank’ such as in ‘Archbishop’³ being the chief or higher bishop – in charge of those of lower rank.

There is a suggestion that ‘Archmage’ should be pronounced ‘Ark Mage’ (for example) just as ‘Archangel’ is pronounced ‘Ark Angel’⁴. This seems incorrect! In both ‘Archangel’ and ‘Archmage’, the ‘Arch’ part is meant as ‘of higher rank’. It could therefore be argued that the correct pronunciation of ‘Archangel’ should be ‘Arch’ + ‘Angel’ instead of the commonly and seemingly correctly used ‘Ark’ + ‘Angel’ (which I prefer). Time constraints and the fact that this post is already a ‘wall of text’ prohibit me from expanding on the correct or perceived as correct pronunciation of ‘Archangel’ though.

After some consideration, it is my belief that although the word ‘Archmage’ does not seem to exist as a single word in any dictionary it seems that it is valid to use the more common ‘Archmage’ than the seemingly incorrect ‘Arch-mage’ or more correct ‘Arch mage’. It is also my belief that the word ‘Archmage’ should be pronounced ‘Arch’ + ‘mage’ rather than ‘Ark’ + ‘mage’. These are of course only my beliefs and as Forte is reported to have said, “I conceive of nothing, in religion, science or philosophy, that is more than the proper thing to wear, for a while”. Applied to the subject matter in this thread, the Forte quote can easily be pressed into usage for pronunciation!

Enjoy the game everyone and pronounce the words as you see fit.

1. 'Arch' - http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/arch?q=arch
2. 'Arch-enemy' - http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/arch-enemy?q=arch-enemy
3. 'Archbishop' - http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/archbishop?q=archbishop
4. 'Ark Angel' - http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/archangel?q=archangel ('Ark' or 'Arch' - LOL.)


My WOT is probably totally incoorect in assumptions, spelling and grandma!

When I read 'foot mages' I thought about fallen arches. (I'm just strange like that!) ROFLmuch.

Edit: Yes! I was bored until reading this thread.

It will always be arch to me. And it's 'maters', not 'toe mah toes' that you find in all those barrels in Skyrim.

Because they're French and not English. You're English. For what it's worth, Australians tend to pronounce things more "properly" than do the Brits, but in this case it's pretty obvious what the correct, logical pronunciation is. It's arch, with a "ch" and not a "k", as per SerStiefel's explanation.

Nice!

Would that be 'ch' as in 'loch'?

ROFL! I'm just jesting with / teasing you. No offence meant.

Might be the high elfs have their own pronunciation for it. Always trying to make out like they are better than everyone else.

I prefer saying Arch instead of Arkh, just a matter of preference

Just don't call him the grand wizard. That's ulfric's title.

I chuckle a little inside whenever I hear the voice actors for Skyrim mispronounce Archmage and Herbs. The correct pronunciation for the former is "ark-mage," while the correct pronunciation for the latter is "erbbs."

The correct pronunciation for herbs is "herbs". That incorrect pronunciation that you highlight above is just a carry-over from when English was mostly French + German. You don't call ham, "am".

ha perfect example how dumb the english language is.....knife is 1 of my favs, what purpose does the k serve? "Silent letters" shouldn't exist because no one ever speaks them

Bottom line:

It's your game, say it any way you want to.

I have never heard any in-game character pronounce either of those last two that way. Not in Oblivion or Skyrim. And I cannot recall any example in Morrowind, either.

Those silent ks used to not be silent. Knights were k-nites.

I thought it was "silly English knnnnnnIGits!"

I already (sorta kinda almost perhaps a bit) explained earlier in the thread, but I certainly wouldn't blame you for not bothering to look.